Harley Benton ST-20HSS SBK Standard Series 4-stars Reviews

SBK beauty

My second SBK style. I like it. Upgrade in quality for another $25-50 and have someone polish the frets and set it up. Then, I would love it.

Cool but ...

some frets scratch the hand. there are several dead notes after the 15th fret on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd string. the five position switch only works in three positions unfortunately. and so in general, the guitar is good, beautiful and of good quality, it's worth the money!!

Mid tone control

This is my fourth Harley Benton instrument and there will be more.

Build is excellent.

However, the lower tone pot seems to be stuck/routed to the "0" position to make selector positions 2, 3 & 4 very muffled. Its a pity because the bridge humbucker is very good, the neck single coil is astounding for sub 100£/€ guitar.

I'm very happy with the rest of the build and will be adding a custom HSS scratchplate - the guitar is a perfect base for this.

It's great!

I was impressed by this! Guitar sounds and feels very good!

Very great for beginners or for little jams.

Wow....all this for only 89 Euro.

I got this guitar simply because it looked cool with the satin black finish and the absolute steal price of 89 Euro. I got far more than I paid for. The guitar plays great, the pickups are good and the fretwork is awesome...even for a guitar costing 3 - 4 times as much.

I am completely shocked at how good this guitar was "out of the box" and I am 100% convinced I'll never find a better guitar at this price...ever.

Nice all rounder

This is a really good guitar for beginners and intermidiate guitarists. Comes shipped in perfect condition. no rough edges or damage to the body. The only thing it needed was the string lowering which is very easy to do and the tools are provided to do this. There was a lil bit of the ribbon showing round the bottom 2 pickups. But they where easy tucked away. Its a nice light guitar as wel. Im happy to have purchased this. My name is Michael, i have been playing guitar for over 20 years and this is my newest perchace in nearly 10 years. very happy

Really good and cheap

+ good pickups

+ looks nice

+ price 70 €

+ quality

-dry fretboard

It's actually nice guitar for 70 €.

Nice Guitar

Nice guitar for beginner, will change the tuners to locking style, replace the Pick ups with 59 and ready for jamming , The flat black paint is sensitive to showing wear. enjoy

A stratocaster on a budget

Obiously you shouldn't go into this purchase thinking you're ending up with a top-of-the-line product that could compete with an actual Fender Stratocaster, however, for less than 1/10 of the price of one, it is an amazing guitar.

Right out of the box, the guitar is perfectly set up. No sharp frets, straight neck, no paint-job fails - flawless QC.

The sound is OK. With a certain amount of messing around with amp settings, EQ, and such, it can sound pretty good. I found the guitar tends to do better with clean tones, rather than distorted ones. The one thing I dislike about the sound is that there is just too much treble (on the humbucker too) which can make dialing in tones a pain.

Hardware-wise it's ok, nothing spectacular. The tuners hold the guitar in tune better than I expected, however, they aren't the most pleasant to tune with. The pickups are cheap, but get the job done. In addition, while I like that there is a whammy bar bundled with the guitar, using it is another matter. If used to achieve slight vibrato, it's fine but will eventually detune the guitar. Don't expect to be doing any dive bombs with it tho.

Overall, it's a solid guitar and the fact it doesn't even cost 100€ is baffling. It is obviously aimed at beginners, or maybe just someone who wants a wall decoration, so if studio work is what you need it for, you should probably look elsewhere.

Incredible crab stick

The scale was already set up. The instrument is completely ready to play. I am very satisfied. Of the minuses, I can note that the frets ring in some places and they need to be polished a little. The humbucker is not very powerful, in the future I plan to replace it with another one. Verdict: This is a very good guitar for the price. The guitar is well suited for upgrades. UPD: frets made of soft metal, short-lived, the finish is not very good, not all dots were glued

Good base

I ordered 10 years ago a Harley Bentonguitar and recently this st-20HSS. I can notice that quality has evolved a lot. The guitar is well build, the pickups are fairly good, a good quality is that the humbucker doesn't produce any feedback on loud volumes of your amp in combination with a boost (TS for example). The neck is fairly thick and it is a 'honest'-guitar - intonation is fairly good, action is ok from the factory out. I tested the guitar with a Gallien Krueger ML250, Marshall DSL, Randall RG200, Randall RH150, Marshall 8100. The pickups are neutral sounding, it gives the best results for me with a pro co ratboost instead of a TS808 and TS9 to drive the amps gain. It sounds the best with my marshall DSL and Randall RG200. It is a decent baseguitar to mod I think, The Kramer strat of 131 Euro is slightly better (better pickups, better playability on the neck), but the Kramer HB feedbacks a lot but has more spark. I am satisfied, I see no paintjob defaults or broken parts, the weight is decent, it does not feel like for example a squier 15 years ago. Overall nice guitar for a very good price.

For the price is a good guitar for a beginner

Bought this one because I liked how it looked, got to say for the small price it's actually a good guitar.

My example have scratch and issue with truss rod.

Anyway it's good guitar for home.

Worth its money.

This is my first electric guitar, so do not judge strictly. As the first Harley Benton ST-20HSS electric guitar fits perfectly, let me now tell you why:

pros:

+ Attractive appearance (in this price range you will not find the guitar more beautiful)

+ Guitar comes with good strings and is fully tuned

+ Good assembly

+ Good tuners

+ Price

cons:

- Small assembly jambs (pickguard has irregularities after milling)

- Sound pickups are the cheapest (for this price, forgive me, but I advise to change).

- Weak springs in tremolo machine (it was difficult to adjust the beaker)

- the body is easily marred (it is enough to hit the mediator once on the matt surface, and there is an permanent scratch).

In the end I can say that for its money this instrument is wonderful, it allowed me to get acquainted with the electric guitar device, today it is an instrument on which I practice every day.

I apologize for the bad English I used to use translator somewhere.

Very Good Value

Ordered in early January, and was told to wait 7-8 weeks.

It arrived yesterday, and here are my initial observations...

PROS

1. Looks even better in the "flesh" than in the pictures. The red tortoise pickguard really pops against the matte black body.

2. Neck is straight & true, and the fretwork is very good - level with no sharp edges.

3. Stays in tune well, in spite of the basic tuners, nut and bridge - a pleasant surprise.

4. The pickups are pretty good, and all 5 positions are usable from clean to dirty tones & various points in between.

Note: Bridge pickup is quite hot, so some amp/pedal tweaking might be necessary to get the sound you're after (especially since it's not wired to the tone control - per usual Strat-style configuration).

5. Electronics are fine for what they are, and do the job without fuss.

CONS

1. The bridge pickup is wiggling in it's slot, probably due to loose springs underneath the pickguard. I need to get in there to sort it out - a minor annoyance.

2. A few burrs and rough edges on the pickguard, especially around the cutouts. A quick 2-3 mins with a small file should do the trick.

3. Screw-in vibrato arm is either too loose or too tight, which is typical of this type of application. You'll need either a small spring or some tape to make it stay in your personal sweet-spot.

CONCLUSION

If you're a beginner or intermediate player looking for a good-quality HSS Strat that won't break the bank, this is a definite contender.

Well done Harley Benton!